GMs Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Fedoseev, Jorden van Foreest, and Arjun Erigaisi share the lead after an action-packed first day of the 2022 FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship.
After five rounds the leaders dropped only half a point each having fended off several challengers, including GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who couldn’t repeat his famous 2021 upset over Carlsen when they faced in round four.
GM Valentina Gunina was the standout in the women’s section with a perfect 4/4 and is being tailed by a chasing pack of five players which includes Chinese GM Tan Zhongyi and former Women’s Rapid Chess Champion GM Humpy Koneru.
The 2022 FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship will continue with rounds six through nine on Tuesday, December 27, starting at 1 a.m. PT / 10:00 CET.
The World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships are among the most popular events in the FIDE calendar and the fast-paced tournament has become a great source of entertainment for chess enthusiasts to bridge the gap between Christmas and New Year.
In the heart of Almaty, Kazakhstan lies the Baluan Sholak Sports Palace, the venue which will play host to this year’s championships. The city will be hoping to give a home-ground advantage to IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, who will vie to defend her women’s world blitz chess champion title.
The open event is filled with an illustrious group of the world’s top players and some of the key contenders heading into the first day were reigning champion Abdusattorov, Carlsen, GM Hikaru Nakamura, World Blitz Chess Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and world championship challenger GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Despite the consistency of these players, the world’s rapid and blitz championships are notorious for producing unexpected winners, largely due to the volatility of results in short-time controls, as well as the impact of momentum. Sharp tactics are often enough to win games as demonstrated by GM Surya Ganguly as early as round one.
Seven of the top 10 seeds managed to win their first-round encounters though it was not smooth sailing for Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave, or GM Alexander Grischuk, who each drew against their lower-rated first-round opponents.
Carlsen got off to a flying 3/3 start, dispatching Chessbrah’s GM Eric Hansen en route to his perfect score. The Norwegian superstar was left staring down the barrel of a potential defeat after finding himself in a worse position against GM Evgeny Tomashevsky in round three although he rallied to enter a drawn, albeit imbalanced endgame. In classic Carlsen style, he was able to squeeze blood from the stone and capture the full point with an array of flashy endgame tactics.
The reigning classical world champion has long shown his intent to capture the world rapid and blitz titles after disappointing results in last year’s events. Speaking to Chess.com in last week’s “State of Chess 2022” Carlsen indicated that he does not have “a lot of ambitions about what to accomplish,” however clarified this, stating: “I love the game, I love playing, so that’s all the ambition I need, and that’s why I’m going to continue competing in the events I enjoy.”
Last year’s winner Abdusattorov, whose home country of Uzbekistan shares its largest border with Kazakhstan, clearly felt comfortable in his bid to go back-to-back, also scoring 3/3 to kick off the day. The fourth round saw the world rapid champion paired with Carlsen in a rematch of their round-10 game from 2021 (which the world number-one spectacularly lost). However, this year Carlsen was able to complete his redemption ark, bowling over Abdusattorov in a barnstorming game.
Source: Chess
